It took quite some courage to do so on an island which has helped elect the first Green Party member of parliament, and believe me, I thought long and hard before I made the decision to come out.

My decision was based on reasoned conclusions after reading dozens of contrarian books on the subject, including the most convincing to me, titled “The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change,” written in 2007 by the Danish physicist Henrik Svensmark.

In such a short retrospective period, and, much to my delight, two weeks ago (the day after I had submitted my article to II), I marveled at what great timing my declaration was.

Allow me to expound on my joy.

Imagine being falsely accused of causing massive flooding, drought and/or being a mass murderer of thousands of people worldwide. Sounds like the attributes of a James Bond movie villain doesn’t it? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a group of the world’s top scientists, using the most sophisticated, state-of-the-art, scientific equipment on the planet, prove your innocence, while identifying the real culprit?

Well, if your name happens to be CO2, I have good news for you. You stand accused of crimes against nature and humanity, in the curious case of the gradually warming planet Earth, but, your reputation and good name are on their way to being finally exonerated.

Scientists at the CERN research centre in Switzerland, arguably the most advanced scientific research facility in existence, have been conducting experiments for the past few years on the influence of cosmic rays on the earth’s atmosphere, cloud formation, and, its theoretical implications for the temperature variations of regional climate changes measured worldwide.

They have now published their findings in the prestigious, “peer-reviewed” science journal Nature. And, just for clarification, the peer-reviewed, published study was not conducted by a bunch of so-called “deniers” (or, as Al Gore recently suggested “deniers” be called, “racists,”) but, 63 of the world’s leading scientists, from 17 institutes in 9 countries in Europe and the USA.

In a nutshell their findings strongly suggest the real driver behind temperature changes, sea level fluctuations, and sea ice variations, is not CO2, but….wait for it….the sun, its interaction with galactic cosmic rays and cloud formation.

In other words, climate change, global warming and/or global cooling is linked to the ebb and flow of sunspot activity, its influence, via electromagnetic radiation, on the amount of cosmic rays which reach the earth, which, in turn, influence the formation, or lack thereof, of clouds, the quantity of which determine the amount of solar radiation reflected back into space and hence the temperature of various regions of the planet.

To give you an idea of the magnitude of effect clouds have on cooling, or warming, it is estimated total manmade warming is about 1.6 watts per square metre. Imagine a 1.6 watt light bulb shining on 1 square metre, and that’s the amount. Clouds on the other hand are estimated to cool the earth by about 30 watts per square metre. This means if cloud cover was decreased by just 5% in any particular year, it would have the same effect as all of the estimated manmade warming. Conversely, if cloud cover increased by just 5%, it would negate all estimated manmade warming. Clouds therefore have a major effect on the world’s temperature.

So, what is the real thermostatic climate change control mechanism of the earth? In short? – “It’s the sun, stupid.”

The CERN experiment was based on the theory put forth by Svensmark, and, from all indications, that theory grows more convincing by the day. One of the most compelling arguments for the theory is the close correlation between historical temperatures and sunspot activity. Seeing those two factors on a graph, is ten times more convincing than the rather dubious relationship between CO2 and historical temperatures which actually indicates CO2 rises in response to temperature increases, not the other way around.

And it’s not just the CERN research creating a problem for the likes of Gore, or James Hansen of NASA, or Andrew Weaver at UVic, etc.. They also now need to explain why sea levels, like presidential approval numbers and consumer confidence, have fallen. According to NASA, the oceans are down a quarter of an inch this year compared to 2010.

I can hear the howls of Anthropogenic Global Warmists already as Al Gore’s carbon trade stocks start to tumble…and, as the world wakes up to a new and better understanding of reality. CO2 will soon be off the hook, and can be set free to promote vegetation growth, making the world a greener place – hurray!! Driving your car will be seen as helping a tree grow, which in turn is producing oxygen for you. Children worldwide can sleep well tonight.

And all of this was just in time for September 14th the Al Gore 24 hour propaganda event titled “24 Hours of Reality.” A press release promoting the event states, “The deniers may have millions of dollars to spend, but we have a powerful advantage. We have reality.”

Unfortunately, unless that reality includes the latest news from CERN, it is reality-lite.

It appears we can now stop wasting our collective breaths and time on the theoretical/mythical benefits of carbon footprint reductions and get down to the real problems facing humanity – lack of sufficient food, water, and sanitation for billions, and, adaptation to climate change. Solve those problems, and as already been proven, you automatically improve the human condition while decreasing population growth and moving towards sustainability.

For those who want to better understand the science behind the cosmic ray connection, visit the CERN site at cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1181073/ and watch the 2009 presentation on Cosmic rays and climate. This will give you the background on the basis of the groundbreaking research.

In my opinion, this latest announcement is perhaps the most important, small step for man in taking a much larger step for mankind in the 21st Century, and, should be heralded as such.

Everyone, including global warmists, should be elated and awed by the implications of cosmic events. Folks, we’re back to having to plan to cope with natural forces, completely outside of our control, as we have been since the beginning of civilized time.

And, from what I’ve read, winters over the next couple of decades could, on the whole, be more severe due to the observed reduction of sunspot activity.

#2 – Trenberth – Deep Sixer

The second study should bring peals of laughter as it reveals what can only be viewed as wishful thinking by one of the world’s most prominent pro-global warming scientists, Dr. Kevin Trenberth.

Dr. Trenberth, in the 2009, Climategate emails, was revealed to have written: “The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t.. Our observing system is inadequate.”

The prime reason they couldn’t account for lack of warming (now for the past 10 years) is the CO2 theory says there must be additional heat being trapped somewhere, but they can’t find it. They’ve looked everywhere on the planet.

So, what is so funny about his latest study? It comes to the conclusion that the “missing heat” must be stored deep in the ocean. OK, but, did the study actually find heat stored in the ocean? No.

Start laugh track.

The conclusion Trenberth reached (while defying basic physics that heat rises in water), that the missing heat is somehow magically trapped in the ocean, by unknown forces (aliens or Neptune maybe?), is based not on his “inadequate observation system,” but, instead on, wait for it….his non-existent observation system and computer modeling.

This is pathetic. Computer modeling creates conclusions based on its programming and data inputs. Create the right computer program, and you could show how the “missing heat” is stored in coconuts.

The third peer-reviewed study, by Mr. Richard P. Allen, (see article http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/09/20/new-peer-reviewed-paper-clouds-have-large-negative-feedback-cooling-effect-on-earths-radiation-budget/) supports two previous papers (Lindzen and Choi, Spencer and Braswell), based on…wait for it….”more than adequate observation systems” that show a net negative temperature effect exhibited by clouds. Bottom line, all three of these particular studies show that, contrary to what the CO2 theorists say (CO2 creates warming due to increased greenhouse effect), as the earth warms, there are more clouds created, and, the net effect of the additional clouds is not the CO2 net warming which has been theorized (but couldn’t be found), but, in fact, net cooling.

This is the explanation for what has perplexed Trenberth, et al. (al of whom must now be seething) – there is no “missing heat” – the additional clouds have radiated it back into space.

AND, it also provides good support for the CERN experiment’s direction of study/theory on the connection between cloud formation and sunspot/cosmic ray activity. The dots, starting with the big bright one in the sky, followed by the tiny ones from space (cosmic rays), are starting to get connected.

In conclusion, any common sense individual would think all of these studies’ results will be greeted as great news to all the good, and well meaning, placard waving, “consensus” crying, doomsday scenarioists. But, why do I suspect that will not be the case? The cynical part of me says every scientist, TV-movie maker, politician and book of the month club author who has made their living on the back of the multi-billion dollar industry created by the trumped up charges against CO2, is going to be out of work soon. They will not go gentle into the good night…they will, as Dylan Thomas advised, rage. I can hardly wait…its going to be quite the debacle. Let the role reversal games begin! How long can it possibly take before the Algorian believers are declared members of the new “hot air” society?

The following article, by Ms. Julie Johnstone, referencing an article I wrote which appeared in the Islands Independent, was posted on 16 September 2011, on www.greenhearted.org a website co-authored by Ms. Johnstone. My “rebuttals” to her blog are in italics below. Enjoy this diatribe….

(Eric’s note – See my article – click here) You know, the most labour-intensive part of responding to denialists is that they can say (and seem to get away with saying) whatever they want with impunity (using, by the way, hollow aphorisms repeated ad nauseum in the internet’s echo chamber by other denialists who refuse to see what’s happening around the world or just don’t give a damn about others).

But the scientists and others who are trying to explain the science always feel they have to make sure that every single tiny little weeny detail is backed up with references — or the likes of the mean-spirited old codger I’m responding to here will jump on it, using more flippant nonsense gleaned from denialist blogs and websites.

Here, then, is my detailed response, even though I would rather have spent my time on doing what’s right for the children of all species. (But then, maybe this constant recorrecting is what’s called for to ensure them a climate-safe future….)

1. Some warm periods in the last 12,000 years were warmer than today?

It is now generally accepted by paleoclimatologists and other scientists that the Medieval Warm Period (or Medieval Climate Anomaly), from 950 to 1250 A.D., saw some regions slightly warmer than today’s warmed world, but it was not a global phenomenon like today’s global warming is. For more info, see the composite graph below and http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1579/0044-7447-29.1.51.

Eric’s Rebuttal –

Visit this interactive website and check out for yourself whether it appears the MWP was regional, or occurred around the globe, or, is now “generally accepted.” No “consensus” on this question:

2. An ice age in the planet’s near future? No, sir. Not if we continue adding heat-radiating greenhouse gases to the atmosphere at an ever-increasing rate. According to the laws of physics, that is.

Eric’s Rebuttal: This is utter nonsense and ignores historical shifts in temperature far beyond the possible influence of CO2. This indicates just how biased the author is, ignoring basic science. I challenge her to provide credible scientific references which argue in favour of her point.

3. We’re far past the days of scientific consensus on whether man-made CO2 is actually responsible? Actually, the scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming (AGW) came about as the weight of more and more evidence showed that humans are causing current warming with their increasing emissions of greenhouse gases. For more info, see http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-scientific-consensus.htm. (“There are no national or major scientific institutions anywhere in the world that dispute the theory of anthropogenic climate change. Not one.”)

Eric’s Rebuttal: – For a number of years the word “consensus” was used by warmists to suggest there was no longer any debate necessary on the science of climate change, and that there were no credible scientist opposed to the CO2 theory. This has been shown to be utter nonsense. Over 31,000 American scientists (including over 9,000 PhD’s) alone have signed the following petition:

These scientists certainly don’t believe there is a “consensus,” and, nearly 6 out of every 10 Americans now doubt there’s any “consensus” on the theory.

4. “Global warming” has given way to “climate change”? And the insinuation is …? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up in 1988. Perhaps you were trying to say that warming the atmosphere leads to changes in climate, which is correct.

Eric’s Rebuttal: – Actually I was referring to the fact that alarmists, such as Al Gore, have stopped using the term “global warming” and now refer to anything they want to blame on weather as “climate change.” The vernacular change is primarily due to the fact that temperature/warming hasn’t kept up with computer predictions, so, it is easier to avoid the question altogether and just say things like sea levels are rising or there are more hurricanes, etc. due to “climate change.” The climate, like the weather has always, and will always, “change” so, Ms. Johnstone’s, et al, argument is “who can argue with that?” The problem is the hundreds of things blamed on man made “climate change” could also be blamed on natural climate change. Its just that alarmists have a tendency to blame any extreme weather event on man made climate change.

Eric’s Rebuttal: – Cherry picking another graph, from another time period to try make an argument is fine in Ms. Johnstone’s world I suppose, but, what I said was the last ten years are trending down. That is a true statement. Why avoid the truth? Possibly because she can’t explain it, or, like Mann and others, prefers to sidestep the issue.

6. Prompting scientists to “hide the decline”? Talk about something taken out of context! One email, written by one climate scientist, has been skewed so many different ways, it’s farcical. He was talking about an anomalous decline in northern tree ring growth starting about 1960, not global temperature. For a better explanation, see http://www.skepticalscience.com/Mikes-Nature-trick-hide-the-decline.htm.

Eric’s Rebuttal: – This is proof Ms. Johnson while knowing what “hide the decline” actually referred to, belittles it’s meaning. Go to http://climateaudit.org/2009/12/10/ipcc-and-the-trick/ for a thorough analysis of the issue. In a nutshell, when the lead researchers involved noted that the tree ring data (red line on the following graph) diverged from the “consensus view” of warming, they truncated the data series (green line), then effectively hid it by plotting it with other time series. The larger question is this: If the truncated (red) data series was deemed to be “wrong” why did they include it as being representative of pre-1960 temperatures?

7. I always like to hand it to denialists when they’ve got something right. Computer projections aren’t always correct (when compared to observations). Unfortunately, for the most part they have failed to predict how quickly the warming and other disturbing trends are actually happening. However, “surface temperature observations are well within the range of model projections,” “the observed rate of sea level rise is at the upper limit of the IPCC’s projected range,” and “the end-of-summer extent of Arctic sea ice is plummeting far more rapidly than … IPCC models predicted.” For more info, see: http://www.skepticalscience.com/christy-crock-4-observations-match-models.html.

But to say that “every computer prediction of global warming from warming enthusiasts shows smooth upward curves in temperature, not declines, or fluctuations” is sheer fabrication. (See NASA graph in #5 above, for example.)

Eric’s Rebuttal: – Once again Ms. Johnstone refuses to read what I actually said – “every computer prediction of global warming.” What is it about the word “prediction” that makes her think I meant actual recorded/reported temperature?

8. As greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere have increased (we’re over 390 parts per million of CO2 right now, and we started at 290 in the pre-industrial era), global average temperature has increased. So to ask “Why then, if CO2 has continued to rise, has our temperature not followed suit like it’s supposed to?” is disingenuous at best, because temperature has followed suit.

Eric’s Rebuttal: – Except for the past 10 years….and for the other temperature fluctuations which have occurred since 1950, or since after the Industrial Revolution – take your pick, there’s just so many.

Eric’s Rebuttal: – At least Ms. Johnstone acknowledges, albeit grudgingly, that computer models do not take into account all factors. However, she immediately dismisses “solar activity.” Solar activity not only refers to irradiance, but also to magnetic output, which, as the latest news from CERN indicates may have an effect on cloud formation and hence on climate.. It is interesting to note that a 2% change in cloud cover would balance off all alleged man made warming. This indicates just how important (a) the preliminary science coming out of CERN, and (b) the sun’s role in cloud formation.

10. The writer stopped being puzzled long ago about “why weathermen can’t even successfully predict next week’s local weather accurately.” That’s nice. But he also — as denialists often do — seems to be confusing weather (day to day changes) with climate (which is all about long-term trends).

Eric’s Rebuttal: – Excuse me, but I’m not confused. My comment was making an analogy between weathermen and predictive climatologists. I apologize for not being clearer. Ms. Johnstone, when she speaks of “climate” appears to think that “climate” is a worldwide phenomenon, when in fact “climate” is “regional.” There is no such thing as the “Earth’s climate.”

11. “Over the past few years governments have bowed to the political pressure of environmentalists concerned over greenhouse gasses and they’ve passed new regulations and taxes aimed at reducing CO2 emissions.” Yes, and thank goodness for that! Tragically, not nearly enough of this has happened. It’s been suggested that a $300 per ton tax on carbon would help turn the economic momentum around almost overnight, heading us toward a safer, cleaner, healthier, more equitable and more peaceful zero-carbon economy. But who’s fighting that? Yup, the denialists.

Eric’s Rebuttal: – OK. Let’s talk about “denial” and who is actually a “denier” of facts. It is completely irrational to suggest you could actually implement a $300 per ton tax worldwide. There is no way China or India are about to significantly reduce (a) their carbon output, or (b)the increase in standard of living they are beginning to enjoy..

The graph below shows, at the developing world’s estimated rate of growth, the expected increase in CO2 emissions. What is interesting, is that our emissions (Canada/US) are already decreasing. However, to add a burden of $300 per ton tax would cripple our already fragile economy.

It would appear Ms. Johnstone believes “reduction at any cost” is called for. In that regard we certainly disagree on carbon tax..

12. “However, when it comes to the facts of proposals for those reductions including Kyoto, Copenhagen, and others, the political/environmental machinations regarding CO2 are shown to be nothing more than a surrealistic smoke and mirrors show.” Ah, speaking of dense fog. The surrealism actually lies in the miniscule response of governments to the greatest threat ever to face the existence of the human species. It creates cognitive dissonance for people (“I hear it’s an emergency, but I see my leaders doing nothing about it”), which in turn leads to even less political will to do the right thing for our children.

Eric’s Rebuttal: – See Point #11.

13. “I want to make it clear, I am opposed to pollution.” That’s nice. But the writer then goes on to say “However, CO2 is not a pollutant…. Without it, plants would die and stop producing the oxygen you and I so appreciate….” Why can people who appear concerned about pollution not understand that if you trap enough CO2, methane, nitrous oxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the result will be deleterious? Just like the impacts of pollution. No one wants to take all the CO2 away! We just want to get the emission and concentration of it down to levels that won’t lead to global warming and climate disruption. (Am I allowed to say “Duh!” yet?)

Eric’s Rebuttal:– While the CO2/warming theory is yet to be proven, take a few minutes and get a perspective on what 180% increase in CO2 may actually accomplish:

And, remember, increased plant growth = increase carbon sequestration for those of you who pray for greater sequestration.

14. I’m going to ignore his nasty rhetoric about China and India. Yes, they’re developing. And if we’d kept the promise we made when we signed onto the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change back in 1992, they would all be developing in zero-carbon —or at least carbon neutral — ways. So to blame them now is really mean. (Enjoy your daily shower while you can, sir. Water will soon enough become so valuable, you won’t have that luxury.)

Eric’s Rebuttal: – What nasty rhetoric???? I was not “blaming” anyone, let alone the developing countries. What I was saying was I wasn’t blaming them for wanting the same standard of living as I have. How Ms. Johnstone twisted this one around is beyond me.

15. And what’s with throwing in a complete red herring critique of the UN’s Agenda 21? Because the world is urbanizing (over half of us now live in cities, and the percentage is growing all the time), Agenda 21 suggested “sustainable urbanization,” NOT a “protocol for the urbanization of the planet.” Sheesh, dude. You sure are grasping at straws!

Eric’s Rebuttal: – Difference of opinion here on a large topic – Agenda 21. Perhaps we can debate that one sometime in the future. However, if we look what is happening closer to home we find more and more regulations reducing property owners’ rights in the name of over protecting the environment to the point (e.g.- the recent Salt Spring Riparian Area Regulation proposal), of requiring a professional biologist’s report on the impact of development on ditches.

16. Then he accuses people who understand the climate change emergency of “manipulated, exaggerated, fear mongering, child scaring, doomsday scenarios.” Let me take each of these in turn:

Manipulate – This is what denialists do to data that shows global warming due to increased CO2 emissions actually exists; it’s called “cherry-picking” and we know they do it because they keep accusing the “other side” of doing it. (This is a psychological defence mechanism called projection, which involves taking one’s own unacceptable qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people.)

Eric’s Rebuttal: – Examples – Mann manipulated temperature charts by “hiding the decline,” Pauchauri and Gore manipulate the media by telling lie after lie after lie, and cherry picking data happens just as often from alarmists as it does from anywhere else – Ms. Johnstone’s depiction of the Medieval Warm Period above is a good example.

Exaggerate – The sad part of this accusation is that we’re NOT exaggerating! Overheating the oceans and the atmosphere really could devastate the habitability of this planet!

Eric’s Rebuttal – Computer predictions, which have been proven incapable of reverse predictions, are being used to exaggerate reality. Yes, overheating of the planet could be disastrous, but, there is no conclusive evidence this will occur. Exaggerations which the IPCC have been involved in include – (a) Himalayan glacier melt, (b) 40% of Amazon rainforest in jeopardy, (c) increase in storms, (d) temperature records in the US, to name just a few. This past year sea levels were down slightly, the ten year temperature trend is down, sunspot activity is down, the potential influence of each additional molecule of CO2 in the atmosphere is less than the previous molecule.

Fear mongering – People call us alarmists, but you’re not an alarmist if you’re raising the alarm about something that’s alarming! We’re not creating needless worry or panic — though we wish we were! (Do you see worry or panic anywhere?) Fear mongering is the use of fear to influence the opinions and actions of others towards some specific end. But we’re not using fear, we’re telling people the impacts of continuing to burn fossil fuels — and those impacts are scary.

Eric’s Rebuttal – There is a big difference in reporting “the bridge is out” as opposed to claiming, with the same ferocity, “we think the bridge may be out soon.” Exaggerations used by Al Gore (as he has openly admitted) are purposefully intended to scare people.

Child scaring – This is a low blow, designed to turn people against anyone who actually cares about children and their future! I never talk to anyone younger than 12 (or a mature 11 year old) about climate change (and most of them don’t care anyway, just like their parents). If younger children ask me, I lie and tell them there are lots of adults looking after the problem for them. I hate having to lie. And, frankly, I hate people who are quite blithely blighting the children’s future by living their own lives with no sense of responsibility toward the future.

Eric’s Rebuttal – While Ms. Johnstone may be an exception, she cannot claim ignorance of the fact that people like Raffi and others are getting their message into elementary schools, and certainly to those younger than 11 years old. Take for example this article (http://chalcedon.edu/research/articles/humanist-doomsday-myth-scares-children/) which indicates “1 out 3 children ages 6-11 years old fear that the planet won’t exist when they grow up…” I can’t find any evidence of Ms. Johnstone warning, advising or admonishing anyone on her website (directed at educational professionals) regarding the issue of scaring children.

Doomsday scenarios – My gosh, but were it not so! But if the shoe fits the scenario …. The end of life on the planet is, well, pretty doomy and gloomy. A diagnosis of cancer is doomy and gloomy, too, but doctors have to tell their patients the truth nonetheless.

Eric’s Rebuttal– So, start wearing a “The World Is Coming To An End” t-shirt (but please don’t let the children see it.) At every turn of human civilization there have been doomsayers, and Ms. Johnstone’s group are now likely the largest – perhaps apart from those who still believe in Armageddon.

17. And now the writer shows both his true colours (one of his compatriots once told me that Canadians would rather die comfortable than live uncomfortable) and his lack of understanding and imagination for solutions to the climate crisis. “Until then [until someone can show him how changing our EuroAmerican lifestyles will actually make a significant difference — selfish bastard!], I plan to continue showering in the mornings, keep driving to work in my gas dependent automobile, buy food from here, there and everywhere, fight carbon taxation, and keep wondering how we’re all going to stay warm, without carbon, when winter inevitably comes.”

I know, I know, this is a blog about compassionate climate action. But my patience and my compassion wear very thin with people like this. I guess I already mentioned “selfish bastards,” did I?

Eric’s Rebuttal– OK Ms. Johnstone, please tell us all, because I’m dying to know how your lifestyle is so dramatically different than mine – (a) do you not shower or bathe in hot water? (b) do you or Peter drive a car or ride in one from time to time? (c) how much carbon does it take to make the food you eat every day? (d) have you flown in a plane in the last 5 years, (e) do you use toilet paper? (f) the clothes and shoes you wear took how much carbon to produce? (g) the computer you took how much carbon to make? or (h) make one up and fill in the blank -________________________________

My guess is Ms. Johnstone’s lifestyle is not as “holier than thou” than as one might expect from reading her response to my article.

Concluding remarks – Within the past week Ms. Johnstone has called me “a selfish bastard,” (with “selfish” scrawled graphically in what looks like blood), a “progenycidist” (sic? I’m guessing she must have meant pro-genocidist), a “mean spirited old codger,” and, has alleged I must have paid the Islands Independent editor to print my article. Did I mention she called me a “selfish bastard?”

These remarks coming from a self-styled “compassionate” person, are all either exaggerations, libel or lies – (a) My parents were married when I was born – hence no-bastard status, (b) I am a pro-lifer – hence I am certainly no pro-genocidist, (c) as my friends and acquaintances, and even opponents, will tell you, I’m not mean, or selfish, (d) I’m a young 59, and I still rollerblade and play hacksack with kids 1/3 of my age – hardly what someone of Ms. Johnstone’s own age group should refer to as being either “old” or “codger(ly),” and (e) I have never had to pay anyone to publish my numerous articles, letters or columns. Combined, her allegations perhaps reveal more about Ms. Johnstone’s lack of character or lack of knowledge (a terrible thing for an educator to be lacking) of me, more than anything else.

And, while I’m sure I could come up with a variety of adjectives/slurs describing her as well, being a gentleman, and thick skinned (3 years in local politics will do that), I won’t…at least not this time around. I’d prefer to debate, not name call, which is what scientific skeptics worldwide would prefer to do with alarmists. Now, if only we could only convince our critics that scientific debate is healthy, even for children…I’m afraid that it may be a cold day in hell before that happens, or perhaps a couple of cold decades on earth…winter is coming….

For the past 9 years I have tried to raise the warning that our community and rural way of life is in decline. The good folks at SOC are promoting voting for candidates in the next election who are committed to making the changes necessary to bring us back from the brink.

As anyone who has read my letters or columns, or, listened to me on “The Troublemakers” (every Thursday at 5 – 6:30, CFSI-FM), I am not enamored with our current Islands Trust administration. Six valuable years have been wasted (rewriting an OCP which only needed minor updates) while the community housing crisis has worsened, with only lip service being paid to it. The current proposed “solutions” do nothing to actually increase the housing stock, and, may actually decrease it.

The next two Trustees we elect must bring real solutions forward, and pass them into law, long before their mandate is up. As we all know, our environment is doing fine, thank you. Our community is not. We need to attract young families to replace the “grey tsunami” (retiring baby boomer generation). Without a realistic plan for revitalization, our service industry will continue to be decimated over the next ten years. Without housing young families can afford to purchase, its just another version of the drawbridge mentality – I’m here, why worry about anyone else getting here?

It is time for a change. It is time for common sense and a sense of rurality to prevail. Please pay attention over the next few months and read and listen and talk about the issues.

As Al Gore’s 24 hours of Reality hits the airwaves today, September 14th, I wonder if he will be showing the following slide….(the time line is from 2001 to 2009, CO2 is from Mauna Loa, IPCC computer modelling temperature and CO2 forecasts from 2001, actual temperatures from MSU Satellite.)